Xu Hai stood at the bow of the ship, draped in a gorgeous silver-white robe, looking quite elegant as he stared at Zhang Ruochen, who was standing on the surface of the water, and laughed, “Zhang Ruochen, why don’t you continue to run away?”
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes, looked towards the ship where Xu Hai was, only to see, six bloody corpses, collapsed on top of the deck, blood kept flowing out from the corpses, obviously they had only just died.
The six dead people were the Market Realm warriors who formed a team with Xu Hai.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Why did you kill them?”
Xu Hai smiled and said, “After all, I came here to kill you, so of course I couldn’t let too many people know. In case they returned to the base and spouted nonsense about me killing fellow warriors from the Kunlun Realm, wouldn’t I be punished by the Ministry of Military Affairs?”
Zhang Ruochen said, “That’s why you took the first step to kill and silence them.”
“If I didn’t need to form a small group in order to leave the Yellow Imperial Island, do you think that I would want to travel on the same ship with them?”
Xu Hai added, “Besides, this isn’t exactly killing to silence me, back at the base, I will tell the officials of the Ministry of Military Affairs that they were killed by the natives of the Xuanwu Market Realm. In this way, their families, will also receive a generous pension.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “If I kill you, will the Ministry of Military Affairs also give a pension to the Xu Sheng Sect Valves?”
Xu Hai’s eyes sank, revealing a chilling aura, however, he quickly laughed out loud again and said, “Zhang Ruochen, have you been carried away by the fame of being the number one on the Heavenly Ranking, and do you really think that you can be invincible if you can’t meet any opponents in the Heavenly Extreme Realm? To tell you the truth, your strength is nothing more than a mole cricket in front of an expert of the Fish Dragon Realm.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Would it be too early to jump to conclusions like this? We should at least have a battle to know who is actually stronger, shouldn’t we?”
Xu Hai Dao: “Arrogant and arrogant, you don’t know the heights of the heavens, since that’s the case, as a senior brother, I need to teach you what it means to keep a low profile.”
“To deal with a mere Heavenly Extremity Realm martial artist, why do you need your lordship’s help, I’ll go and take his life.”
A cultivator of the Fish Dragon Realm walked out from behind Xu Hai.
This person, named Xu Qianling, was an elder of the Xu Sheng Clan.
Holding a one and two foot long ebony war club, Xu Qianling took a step forward and rushed off the ship, stepping on the waves of the water as he took the lead in attacking Zhang Ruochen.
Seeing Xu Qianling rushing out, Xu Hai also occupied the time without making a move, secretly saying in his heart, dealing with a mere Zhang Ruochen, with Xu Qianling’s strength, it should already be enough.
Xu Qianling’s cultivation had reached the Fish Dragon Third Transformation “Bone Refining and Jade Transformation”, and his fleshly strength was incomparably strong, far from being comparable to that of a Heavenly Extreme Realm martial artist.
Even if Zhang Ruochen was the number one in the Heavenly Ranking, it was impossible for him to match Xu Qianling’s strength.
Besides, Xu Qianling was a disciple of a Saint Clan, and his strength was already stronger than the average Fish Dragon Third Transformation cultivator, so even if he fought with a Fish Dragon Fourth Transformation cultivator, he might not lose.
How could Zhang Ruochen fight him?
Xu Hai still had quite a bit of confidence in Xu Qianling, so he didn’t bother to fight personally. After all, there was no need to use a bull’s knife to kill a chicken.
“Wow!”
The true qi within Xu Qianling’s body was very strong and surged towards his arm, injecting it into the 10th rank True Martial Treasure Artifact grade Ebony Gold War Stick.
His arm swung the war club, and the powerful air current lifted up a layer of seawater, turning it into a wave of water that surged towards Zhang Ruochen.
A wave of water, containing the power of the stick, crashed into Zhang Ruochen’s Body Protecting Heavenly Deity, sending Zhang Ruochen flying tens of feet away.
“Haha! The number one on the Heavenly Ranking is nothing more than that, in front of a cultivator of the Fish Dragon Realm, it’s like an ant.”
Xu Qianling laughed out loud, and with his war club in hand, he attacked once again.
Zhang Ruochen stabilised his stance, stopped retreating, drew the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword, and quickly turned his arm on the water surface, rolling up a circle of water waves.
The water flowed like a small stream, rotating around the sword body.
The circle of water waves, emitting a giggling sound, froze together and turned into countless three-inch long ice swords.
“Out!”
With a wave of Zhang Ruochen’s arm, those ice swords, like a rain of swords, flew towards Xu Qianling.
“Shocking Heavenly Fury.”
Xu Qianling held his stick with both hands and slashed downwards.
The Ebony Gold Battle Stick formed a bowl-thick, ten-foot-long gigantic shadow that struck downwards, shattering all the ice swords, all of them, into pieces.
The huge shadow of the stick contained an incomparably terrifying power, denting the entire surface of the water and raising tens of feet of water waves.
Zhang Ruochen immediately crossed his sword and blocked it, and countless sword qi surged out like a body flight, forming a great sword qi bell.
“Boom!”
In just an instant, that huge stick shadow shattered the sword qi great bell, once again sending Zhang Ruochen flying.
Zhang Ruochen’s hand that was squeezing the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword was sore, and he was actually lightly injured.
“Zhang Ruochen, I told you a long time ago that the number one in the Heavenly Ranking can only be king in the Heavenly Extreme Realm, and when you meet an expert of the Fish Dragon Realm, you are just a mole cricket. To tell you the truth, I only used half of my strength just now.”
Thinking that he had won, Xu Qianling took large steps towards Zhang Ruochen.
His heart was quite excited, secretly thinking that as long as he was able to kill Zhang Ruochen, it would be a heavenly feat, and he would surely be able to receive the rich reward promised by the Old Ancestor.
Zhang Ruochen sighed and said, “My current power is really still a bit short of a Fish Dragon Third Transformation cultivator.”
“It’s a pity that you understood too late.”Xu Qianling laughed.
“Not too late.”
Zhang Ruochen shook his head and immediately took control of his Martial Soul, using it to mobilise the Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.
“Wow!”
In an instant, the spiritual qi between the heavens and the earth converged towards Zhang Ruochen, causing the aura on Zhang Ruochen’s body to become stronger and stronger.
Earlier, when Zhang Ruochen fought with Xu Qianling, he didn’t use his Martial Soul and only used his own strength to fight with Xu Qianling. However, Zhang Ruochen’s strongest point was his Martial Soul, which was strong enough to be compared to a cultivator of the Fish Dragon Seventh Transformation.
With the enhancement of his martial soul, Zhang Ruochen looked like he had suddenly changed into a different person. He carried his general sword and still stood there calmly, but he gave Xu Qianling a powerful oppressive force.
“What a powerful martial soul.”
Xu Qianling immediately stopped in his tracks, his heart secretly shocked as his face became somewhat ugly.
Subsequently, he also inspired his martial soul, using it to mobilise the spiritual Qi of the heavens and earth, and added it to his body.
Only, the strength of Xu Qianling’s martial soul was the same as his cultivation realm, which was only equivalent to the level of the Fish Dragon Third Transformation. Therefore, despite the augmentation of his martial soul, his strength, too, hadn’t increased too much.
“So what if the martial soul is powerful, in the end, it’s only a Heavenly Extremity Realm martial artist.”
Xu Qianling suppressed the uneasiness in his heart and calmed down, mobilising his true qi with all his might to execute a Ghost Grade Lower Grade Stick Technique, the Eight Trigrams Prison Suppressing Stick Technique.
The Ebony Gold Battle Stick spun up quickly, forming a huge swirling air force that swept up the seawater within a few miles of the defences, forming a thick pillar of water more than a hundred metres high.
“Rumble!”
Xu Qianling’s stick technique created a vast sound.
That pillar of water, like a huge stick, struck down at Zhang Ruochen. Xu Qianling stood right in the centre of the water column, his skin turning golden and his bones becoming as hard as white jade as he pumped a steady stream of true qi into the Ebony Gold Battle Stick.
Zhang Ruochen flew up from the surface of the water, hanging in midair.
“Ow!”
Suddenly, he executed the Wind-Resistant Flying Dragon Shadow and charged forward, the true qi in his body surging out and condensing into a tens of metres long wind dragon.
Zhang Ruochen stood at the head of the wind dragon and swung his sword, an arc of sword light striking above that one thick water pillar.
With a loud bang, that one water pillar was broken apart by the sword energy and snapped into two.
“Wow!”
The pillar of water dispersed, turning into drops of water that sprinkled down from the sky as if it were a torrential downpour.
Xu Qianling’s body, which had also snapped in two, fell into the water, causing the surrounding seawater to turn completely into blood.
With just one sword, he had killed a strong person of the Fish Dragon Third Transformation.
In Xu Hai’s heart, he was violently shocked, somewhat incredulous, and muttered to himself, “Could it be that this sword is the legendary Zhang Ruochen’s masterstroke, Shakura Without Trace?”
Xu Hai had not seen Zhang Ruochen fight with Huang Shen Yi, so naturally, he had not seen the real “Braking Without Trace”.
However, with the news of Zhang Ruochen becoming the No.1 in the Heavenly Ranking spreading throughout the world, the sword technique of “Braking Without Trace” had also been rumoured to be divine, and had become Zhang Ruochen’s greatest skill, enough to make countless martial artists lose their nerve.
However, Xu Hai did not know that what Zhang Ruochen had just used was not the Shakura Sword Technique, but only the speed of his sword was very fast, the angle of his sword was exquisite, and he had seen the breakage of the Eight Trigrams Prison Suppressing Stick Technique, which was why he was able to kill Xu Qianling with a single stroke of his sword.
Zhang Ruochen landed back on the water surface and picked up Xu Qianling’s ebony battle club, using the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword, he refined the ebony battle club. A few moments later, another basic inscription was added to the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword.
Xu Hai stared at the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword and was able to clearly feel that the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword seemed to have become even sharper after absorbing the ebony war club and the power fluctuations emanating from it were even stronger.
That sword should be a Saint Artifact.
No wonder Xu Qianling possessed a protective treasure and couldn’t block Zhang Ruochen’s sword.
How could an ordinary protective treasure block a Saint Weapon?
Xu Hai’s eyes narrowed as he snorted coldly, “To actually be able to refine a True Martial Treasure, so it seems that that sword of yours is at least a Hundred Stripe Sacred Artifact, and possibly even a Thousand Stripe Sacred Artifact.”
Zhang Ruochen glanced towards the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword and said, “You want this sword?”
The corner of Xu Hai’s mouth hooked as he said, “Not only do I want that one sword, I want all the treasures on you. Xu Konglin, Xu Chen, if either of you can behead Zhang Ruochen, I will reward him with a Saint Weapon.”
On Xu Hai’s body, there was only one Sacred Weapon, which was one of the supreme treasures of the Xu Sacred Clan, specifically used to deal with Zhang Ruochen. This one Saint Weapon, naturally, could not be rewarded to Xu Konglin and Xu Chen.
However, Zhang Ruochen had quite a few Saint Weapons on his body.
As long as Zhang Ruochen was killed, wouldn’t those Saint Artifacts still belong to the Xu Sheng Sect?
At that time, it wouldn’t be a big deal for Xu Hai even if he rewarded a Saint Weapon out.
The two Fish Dragon Realm cultivators standing behind Xu Hai, Xu Konglin and Xu Chen, heard the words “Sacred Artifacts”, and their eyes immediately became fiery.
